Nick Mazmanian
Fiction | Short Stories
96 pages
Perfectbound paperback
Digital formats available
ISBN 978–1502831057
First Edition
Self-Published
Lake Forest, California, U.S.A.
Available HERE
$8.00
In Nick Mazmanian’s short story collection, Where Monsters Lie & Other Tales, readers can look forward to stories that possess sci-fi and macabre overtones with dashes of pulp noir. From one guy fighting for his life to another fighting with himself and his sanity, the stories stay entertaining and engaging. The cover gives off the impression of a graphic novel and, in a sense, some of the stories feel that way. Each tale reads like a screenplay without the formatting, more story, and is easy to visualize.
The first piece, “Where Monsters Lie,” tells the story of Trenton Rennick: the guy who ends up battling for his life. It opens with a strong dose of pulp noir that teeters on a warped Agatha Christie vibe, where Rennick is the Private Investigator, except he’s a mover hired by an eccentric billionaire. With the mentioning of items like “X5 smart glass” (p. 6), it becomes clear that the 1930s and 40s are not the timeframe of the piece, cuing the science fiction. The plot is not difficult to follow, but maintains a nice push and pause, creating an air of suspense from one chapter into the next. It also introduces readers to their first female co-hero of sorts in the collection. This story is the first of most that screamed “film adaptation” and had some of the most amusing dialogue.
What about San Diego County?
I have no quarrel with them, other than they are too far away from everything.
[…] You know that Santa Ana has one of the highest crime rates in Orange County?
And my home and work are built to endure earthquakes, floods, and any other calamity that may slap against its exterior. Your point?
You can’t judge a world you rarely go out into.
I go out daily.
Yeah, to Jeremiah’s Fill for coffee and pie. That isn’t what I would call being adventurous.
(p. 19)
“Where Monsters Lie” is a solid start to the collection and, being the bulk of the book, gives a clear indication of Mazmanian’s writing style. Taking a different approach,“Lighthouse to the Depths” opens with an intense scene of action, and again readers are presented with a futuristic setting, arguably even further into the future than the previous story. This tale focuses more on the thriller and horror angle than on lighthearted entertainment.
Amber gritted her teeth as the man she loved banged at the locked pantry door. The space doubled as a safe room in case of emergencies; today there was cause to use it as it was designed.
(p. 65)
Using mood elements of distance and isolation, Mazmanian presents the story of a married couple living in a lighthouse while the husband explores the dangerous oceanic depths of an Earth no longer familiar to us. The wife encounters strange behaviors from him, and takes it upon herself to determine the cause. This story could have easily taken a damsel-in-distress path to help her deal with all the strange happenings, but thankfully Amber handles it herself like most women are capable of doing.
“Nightlife”concludes the work and offers one of the grittiest tones in the collection where expectations may be held highest because it attempts tackling a more original take on a traditional horror concept. It delivers fairly well while leaving the reader with questions and the opportunity to use their imagination. Die-hard horror fans might be a harder sell, however.
Overall, the stories are entertaining (for a mature audience). Some take to including humor while others maintain a more somber tone. The collection makes an admirable attempt at including more female heroines or secondary characters than male, which is welcomed, especially in this genre. Some are young, but all are adventurous, curious, brave, and/or technologically adept. The only criticism is that the female characters come across as too similar to each other in their attributes. A little more variety and dimension would have been appreciated, but this did not completely take away from the enjoyment of the book.
The writing delivers in the way of storytelling, but comes up a bit short in terms of literary perspective. That isn’t to say the work is shallow. The collection has questions of ethics, moral dilemmas, and difficult situations for many of the characters, but the exploration of these themes does not go very far. Cliché use is prevalent and some of the stories may be predictable, but Mazmanian’s ability to capture interest makes them minor mental notes. If one is seeking a fun mixture of sci-fi and horror, then Where Monsters Lie & Other Tales is worth a read.
